Sundance Selects has acquired U.S. rights to Francois Ozon’s “Young & Beautiful,” starring Marine Vacth, from Wild Bunch.
Deal was announced at Cannes, where the drama premiered in competition last week.
The coming of age film also stars Geraldine Pailhas, Frederic Pierrot, Fantin Ravat, Johan Leysen and Charlotte Rampling. Producers are Eric and Nicolas Altmayer.
Sundance Selects’ sister label IFC Films previously released Ozon’s “Angel” and “Ricky.”
This was the third U.S. rights deal at Cannes between Sundance Selects and Wild Bunch, following acquisitions of Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s upcoming drama “Two Days, One Night” and Abdellatif Kechiche’s “Blue is the Warmest Color.”
Leslie Felperin gave the film a positive review for Variety: “Following hot on the heels of his return to playfully serious form with ‘In the House’ after several slighter efforts, writer-helmer Francois Ozon continues his mid-career roll with ‘Young & Beautiful.’ Like ‘House,’ the new film is a nuanced, emotionally temperate study of a precocious youth, this time centered on a bourgeois teenage girl — entrancingly incarnated by newcomer Marine Vacth — who takes up prostitution the way other kids might get sucked into drugs, eating disorders or self-harm.”
The deal for “Young & Beautiful” was negotiated by Arianna Bocco for Sundance Selects/IFC Films with Carole Baraton and Henri Fabre at Wild Bunch.
